Laundry treating appliances, such as clothes washers, refreshers, and non-aqueous systems, may have a configuration based on a rotating drum that defines a treating chamber in which laundry items are placed for treating. The laundry treating appliance may have a controller that implements a number of pre-programmed cycles of operation having one or more operating parameters. The controller may automatically determine the load amount in the treating chamber and use the determined load amount to set one or more operating parameters.
An inertia method is most commonly used to determine the load amount. This method requires high drum rotation speeds to generate greater than a 1 g centrifugal force to plaster the laundry to drum. For certain laundry types, such as delicates, or conductions, such as dry, the inertia method may be detrimental to the long-term wear of the laundry. While the determination of the load amount is important in setting operating parameters during a cycle of operation, it may be necessary to forego the determination when the situation is such that the laundry may be damaged.